Friday, May 15, 2009

Caramel Bars

My third favourite flavour combination, after chocolate and peanut butter, and chocolate and mint, is chocolate and caramel. I love the rich buttery flavour of caramel, and the smell reminds me of my grandma's kitchen. I read the ingredients for this recipe and decided I had to try it. Oatmeal, caramel, chocolate, what's not to love?

The original recipe called for chopped walnuts but since my husband will be taking most of these into work, as he does with all my baking, I thought I would leave them out in case there are any allergies. I don't think it hurts the taste at all. I gobbled down 3 of these wonderfully rich bars while photographing them and I have to say they were pretty darn tasty, although I think next time I make them I'm going to double the chocolate chips but that's just cause I'm a chocolate junkie.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt together the caramels and heavy cream, stirring occasionally until smooth.2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt.3. Stir in the melted butter until well blended.4. Press Half of the mixture into the bottom of a 8x8 inch baking pan. Reserve the rest.5. Bake the crust for 8 minutes in the preheated oven.6. Remove and sprinkle with chocolate chips (and walnuts).7. Pour the caramel mixture over the top and then crumble the remaining crust mixture over everything.8. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 12 minutes, or until the top is lightly toasted.Cut into squares while it is still warm.

2 comments:

hi, i'm all the way from Ireland and i LOVE your blog! It helps me with recipes i've struggled with before! I was wondering have you ever made banoffee? and if you have, would you consider putting up your recipe? Thanks!

I'm so glad you like my blog! To answer your question, no, I have never made banoffee. I don't really cook with bananas (except for my grandma's banana bread recipe, which I never eat) as I can't stand cooked bananas. I love bananas but only raw and only right when they go from green to yellow. They need to be firm and not have the strong banana taste. I know, I'm weird. I should try it though, I'm a huge toffee fan....